


25 Days Of Christmas

by markwatneyandensemble



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluffity Fluff Fluff, Fluffity fIuff fluff, Look at that Fluffy go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-02-18 15:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 19,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13103325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markwatneyandensemble/pseuds/markwatneyandensemble
Summary: A heartwarming, yet intellectually challenging tale of morality and learning to be a better person and i'm just kidding they fall in love over the course of a christmas season like a hallmark movie.





	1. Hot Chocolate

The three of them were sprawled in some way on the couch, watching some clay-mation Christmas special when the phone rang. Scully picked up the phone and after a short conversation, she hung up and groaned deeply. 

 

"What did he want?" he asked softly, not wanting to wake the tiny girl on Scully's lap. 

 

"There were autopsy notes that were unclear and they needed someone to clarify them."

 

"So, I can't go?"

 

Scully looked down at her newly washed flannel pjs wistfully, and shook her head. 

 

"Sorry." He genuinely was, it had been a great evening. 

 

"It's fine. It probably won't take that long. Can you stay here with Emily?"

 

“Of course.”

 

At the sound of her name, the kid shifted in her sleep, though didn't wake. They both gazed at her lovingly. Neither'd admit it aloud, but they both secretly loved how domestic their relationship was getting. It started when Emily began calling her “Mommy” and him "Daddy" and neither wanted to correct her. In the past few months, it’d only gotten better. 

 

Scully glanced down at Emily, then picked her up as she stood, and set the kid back on the couch in her place. Emily immediately shifted in her sleep to curl into Mulder’s side. Scully disappeared into her bedroom and reappeared in her work clothes.

 

She began while pulling on her coat: “If she wakes up soon, her bedtime is at eight. I’ll probably be back closer to nine-”

  
  
“Scully, I’ve put her to bed before, relax. She’s probably out for the night, anyway.”

 

Scully looked at her daughter, wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and sleeping peacefully. “She’s just been having kind of a hard time with nightmares. I think it’s just the fact that it’s the Christmas season again and last year was traumatic, but I don’t know. She just hasn’t been falling asleep easily.”

 

Mulder reached out with a hand, and took Scully’s to squeeze it. 

 

“I’ll call you if anything happens. We’ll be fine until you get back.” He gave her a reassuring smile. 

 

“Thank you.” She hesitated in the doorway, debating about something Mulder couldn’t figure out. She then crossed the living room and kissed his unsuspecting mouth quickly. 

 

“Bye.” There was a new smile on her face, one he had never before, but he loved it. Deeply. And his eyes never left hers until she had closed the front door behind her.  

  
  
  
  


Emily woke up just as Frosty was dancing his way out of town. She blinked a few times, staring at the bright TV screen, then rubbed her eyes with a tiny fist, and looked up at Mulder with those huge Scully-blue eyes. 

 

“Where’s Mommy?” Her voice still was heavy with sleep.

 

“She had to run out to work really quickly.”   
  
“Oh.” Emily pulled the blanket tighter around her. They watched the credits roll by for a few seconds, waiting for the next special to come on. Scrooge was mumbling about some terrible thing or other when she looked up at him again.

 

“Daddy?”

  
  
“Yeah?” 

 

“Can I have some hot chocolate?” Her bottom lip was stuck out too far forward and her eyes opened wide, making the face that Mulder still hadn’t built up immunity to. 

 

“I don’t know…” he began, focusing on the screen, not the four year-old who was absolutely the cutest in the world. “The chocolate might keep you up past your bedtime.”   
  
“Please?”  _No. He wasn’t going to look at her face. He was going to be a responsible father to this child._

 

“Daddy?” _Damn it._

 

He looked down at her, and said reluctantly: “Okay.”

  
  
Her face broke into a grin.

 

“Okay, BUT you have to promise me you will go straight to sleep and not wake up Mommy by jumping off the walls.”

  
  
She giggled so hard her tiny footie-pajama clad feet shook. “Okay. No jumping off the walls.”

 

“Okay.” He stood and walked to the kitchen, hearing the patter of tiny footsteps following him. 

 

Mulder began pulling ingredients out of the cabinet. Emily began trying to climb up onto the counter and after a second he picked her up and set her on the surface. He handed her a spoon and the box of hot chocolate mix.

  
“Okay, for my famous hot chocolate, you need to scoop two spoonfuls of the chocolate into each mug.” He held up two fingers as he said it. He then reached into the cabinet and set two mugs down beside her. “Okay, ready?” 

 

She grabbed the spoon in her fist and took a scoop of the powder and put it in the mug, but glanced up at him. “Was that right?”

 

“Yeah,” he smiled encouragingly. 

 

She did repeated that three more times while counting very loudly. 

  
“Okay. I’m going to heat up some milk, do you wanna help me stir it?” She nodded very quickly. 

 

He located a pan of Scully’s and poured some milk in and put it over the burner. 

  
“Okay, so you need to be very careful near the stove and don’t use it unless me or Mommy is helping you.”   
  


Emily rolled her eyes in perfect Scully fashion. “I know.”

 

“Just wanted you to know.” He handed her a spatula. They began stirring the milk and watched as steam began to rise off of it. After a few minutes, Mulder turned off the burner and walked the pan to where the mugs sat on the counter. 

Carefully, he poured the milk into the mugs and placed the empty pan in the dishwasher. He then grabbed two spoons and helped Emily off the counter. They took their hot chocolate to the table and stirred the milk in with the mixture. After a moment, Mulder realized what was missing.

 

“Marshmallows!”

 

Emily stared at him. “Yes.”

 

When he came back to the table, they created mountains of marshmallows in each of their mugs and took turns stealing more from the bag. 

  
By the time Emily had finished her hot chocolate it was half an hour past her bedtime. Mulder escorted his very reluctant daughter to the bathroom and had her brush her teeth. Halfway through her chompers and they could hear Scully’s key in the lock. Mulder grabbed the toothbrush from Emily and tossed it back in it’s caddy. She could go without adequately brushed teeth. It was only one night. 

They both ran to her room and she took a running leap into bed and Mulder began tucking her in. She laid still with eyes shut convincingly tight as Scully came to check on them. Mulder smiled at her and kissed a “sleeping” Emily on the forehead before turning off the light and following Scully out of the room. 

 

“Did she have any trouble falling asleep?” Scully asked, when they got out to the kitchen. 

  
  
“It didn’t appear that way.” He tried to say innocently, while noticing over her shoulder that he hadn’t put the mugs away. 

 

“How did the meeting go?” _And how do I clean those mugs without her knowing I gave her four year old daughter a huge amount of sugar half an hour past bedtime._

 

Scully sighed. “It was okay. I really could have done it over the phone.”

 

“That’s awful, Scully. Sorry. You know what? Why don’t you go take a relaxing shower, and I’ll clean up out here.”

 

“Thanks, Mulder, but there isn’t really anything to clean up.” She gestured around her before her eyes fell to the sticky, marshmallow goop covered mugs. “Mulder? Did Emily have hot chocolate right before bedtime?” _Well, technically AFTER bedtime._

 

“No… no. Those are both for me?” He tried Emily’s “puppy” face technique and it had little effect on Scully.

 

“Mulder, she can’t have sugar so close to bedtime.” 

 

Mulder gave her a small smile. “Sorry… she’s just really cute.”

 

Scully rolled her eyes but gave him a smile. They stood in silence for a moment, and Mulder began walking to the door, while desperately hoping that she wouldn’t get the impression that he wanted to leave. 

 

“Mulder?” He turned back to face her alarmingly fast.

 

“Yeah?”   
  
“I… uh… I was hoping to make the holiday season nice for her.” She stared at her feet, almost embarrassed. Mulder had never seen her like this. “I know this time of year is never going to be easy for her, but I was just wondering if you wanted to join us on some activities. Gingerbread making… sledding maybe if there’s snow… That kind of thing? She just adores you and it might make things easier…” her voice trailed off.

 

She refused to meet his eyes, but he grinned anyway. “I’d love to Scully. Whatever you guys want. In fact, I might even overstay my welcome, beware.”

 

She finally looked up. “That’s not possible, Mulder.”

 

They both smiled at each other. 

 

“I better go.” He gestured to the door.

  
“Yeah, oh, right.” She walked with him to the entryway. In similar fashion to before, their eyes remained locked until the door shut behind him. 

 


	2. Wreath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ones short and so is the next one but i swear i'm not being lazy.

Mulder hadn’t heard from Scully what all her plans for the month were, nor did he know if he was even welcome anytime he chose. But regardless, Scully had left work before signing papers Skinner needed on his desk at 8am the next morning, which meant Mulder had to go over the the Scully residence anyway. 

 

The spritz of away-bag cologne he found in his car was completely unrelated. 

 

He knocked on Scully’s door and waited a minute. There was no answer. He briefly wondered if she was back from picking up Emily from pre-school but his thoughts immediately turned to a potential hostage situation and he began fumbling with his keys to try and find hers. He was prepared to burst through the door, when the elevator at the end of the hall dinged and Scully and Emily got out. 

 

Upon sight, Emily dropped her backpack on the ground and charged at Mulder with a huge smile on her face. He dropped the file of papers on the ground as he picked her up and hugged her, smiling at her mother over her shoulder. 

 

“Guess you have some leftover energy from the hot chocolate last night, eh?” He carefully set Emily back on the ground and went to pick up the file.

 

“DADDY! You weren’t supposed to mention the hot chocolate!” 

 

“It’s okay, she figured it out the second she got home last night. Nothing gets past Scully.” He smiled at Scully as she was opening the door. 

 

He tucked the files under his arm and went to pick up Emily’s fallen backpack. As soon as he entered the apartment he handed each item to the correct Scully woman. Emily immediately began rifling through her bag. Scully looked fairly confused until she saw the contents of the file. 

 

“Oh, shit, I knew I was forgetting something.” Scully sent Emily into a fit of laughter.

 

“Mommy, you aren’t supposed to say bad words.”

 

“That’s right. Don’t say bad words. I just made a mistake.” She flipped through the documents quickly, signing each one. She handed the file back to Mulder. “Thanks for bringing it over.”

  
“No problem.” He didn’t want to admit that he liked her apartment more than his own. He always had. Now, even more so since Emily. 

 

“Would you wanna stay for dinner?” Scully asked. 

 

Emily’s ears perked up. “Yes. Please.”

 

“I wish I could, but I have to get these papers back to the office and there’s plenty of other stuff I need to get done…” Both Scullys looked visibly disappointed. “But I can promise I’ll come another night. Soon, too.”   
  
“Okay.” Scully smiled. 

 

“I got it!” Emily stopped searching her bag and held a paper sculpture up in triumph. 

 

“What did you make, sweetie?” Scully asked, walking over to where her daughter sat on the floor. 

 

“It’s a wreath. We made them in arts and crafts. I made mine red and green.” 

 

“It’s beautiful, Emily,” Mulder encouraged. 

 

“Thanks, I like it. Do you want it?” Emily held out the wreath to him. 

 

“I’d love it, but would you be okay with giving it up?” He got a better look at the ring of paper. It was meticulously put together, and the shading on the green and red was advanced for a four year old. There was no doubt a spawn of Scully’s made this. 

 

“It’s okay. I can make another one.”

  
“Well, thank you. I love this. In fact, I might put it up in the office. That way, Mommy and I can look at it all day long.” Emily smiled up at him proudly and silence fell over the room.

 

He hated this part. This awkwardness before he needed to say goodbye. They all knew that he had to leave but none wanted it to happen. 

 

“I, uh. I better go. Paperwork and everything.” Scully nodded. 

 

“We’ll see you soon, then?”

  
“Definitely,” he said with absolute certainty. 

 

“Great.”

  
  


He lingered outside the door after Scully had shut it behind him. He listened to Scully asking Emily sweetly to put her school bag away and telling her that she could watch thirty minutes of TV. Nothing in the world would have made him happier than to just burst back through the door and join in with the family. To help Scully fix dinner and sit across from them laughing and eating. To get into cozy clothes and curl up on the couch between his two favorite people. 

 

He tried to tell himself that one day he’d have that. And he clutched the files tighter and headed back to work. 


	3. Sweater

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll be honest, i laughed a little too hard when i came up with the idea of CSM snapping, breaking into mulders apartment, and defacing his ugly holiday sweater just because the man can't listen to another recording of mulder discussing sensitive information with bells jingling in the background. 
> 
> also fun fact, dec 3, 1999 WAS a friday

It was Friday, and most senior agents were about to go on their holiday breaks. Skinner was particularly pissed that morning, and it didn’t help that Mulder showed up in the ugliest, itchiest sweater on the planet. He bought it a few years ago as a joke, and it kept getting better every year he brought it out from storage. There were originally bells attached to the shoulders, and Mulder was convinced that their disappearance was because of a shadow government that got mad about their serious, thriller movie-esque audio monitoring being disrupted by what sounded like one of Santa’s elves. 

A meeting was called about the reappearance of some old criminals that appeared often in the X-Files. Despite the seriousness of the meeting, Mulder could tell something was bothering Scully as well. She arrived at the last possible second and sat down quietly in her chair without addressing anyone, not even him. 

The meeting went on as professional as it could be with ten agents dressed to the nines and one in a holiday sweater with a reindeer on it. Scully stayed quiet most of it, and only volunteered small insights, and mostly just agreed with him. 

 

After the meeting concluded, and eight agents bolted from the room to catch planes to the Caribbean, Scully and Mulder headed down to the basement, not walking side by side like always, but Mulder a step ahead the entire way. 

 

He shut the door carefully behind them, not wanting to knock Emily’s wreath off like he’d done about ten times that morning. 

 

“Scully, are you okay? You seemed kind of… off in there,” he asked gently after she’d taken her seat. 

 

She was quiet for a moment, staring at the desk and shook her head before meeting his eyes.

  
“Emily had a really intense nightmare last night. I was up half the night with her, she just couldn’t go to sleep.”

 

He pulled a chair up and sat down, knee to knee with her. “What was it about?”

  
“I don’t know. Dying, I think. I don’t know.”

  
“What happened,” he asked, trying not to press her too bad. 

 

“She went to bed normally, and woke up around midnight or twelve thirty, and ran into my room with a toy stethoscope to make sure I was okay. When I woke up, she just sort of curled up in my lap and cried for an hour. We just watched movies the rest of the night.”

 

They both sat in silence for a second, digesting this fact and tried to figure out what to do next. Mulder leaned forward and took both of her hands in his and squeezed them. 

 

“Do you think she needs therapy? Like should we find like an early childhood trauma specialist or something?”

  
“I don’t know, Scully. Maybe. It could have also just been a nightmare because we’re coming up on an anniversary of her adoptive parents’ deaths. Did she say anything about the actual dream?”

  
“No, I tried to ask, and she looked like she wanted to say something, but she just started crying. I just don’t want to make it worse.” Their hands were still together and Scully linked her fingers with his. 

 

“I can ask around and try and find someone she can talk to. In the meantime, I think maybe we should just focus on giving her an amazing Christmas.”

 

Scully sighed and squeezed Mulder’s hands gratefully. “Thanks.”

  
“Now, you wanna get back to real detective work? Investigating the disappearance of Jan-from-accounting’s cookies?”

  
“Is the plot twist that you were the one who stole them, Mulder?” She smiled at him, and even despite the fact that it was forced, it was great to see. 

 

“I would never, Scully. I only steal from Kersh’s desk when he’s not there. How dare you?”

 

She grinned again, and there was the faintest bit of sincerity in it. “Mulder?”   
  
“Yeah?”

 

“That sweater is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing that could make it worse is bells.”   
  
Mulder froze. “Agent Scully, I’m going to have to ask you some questions regarding your whereabouts this time of year about two years ago.”


	4. Snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll have the entire thing up within the 24 hours that are Christmas, but its been a gross few days and so i'm still finishing some up...

“DADDY!” Emily’s voice rang through the phone at five thirty a.m. “DAD YOU HAVE TO COME QUICK.”

 

“WHAT? What is it? Are you okay? Where’s your Mom?” Mulder was out of bed lightning fast, cradling the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he tried to pull on the nearest set of clothes he could find. 

 

On the other side of the line, he could barely make out what was being said. He heard Emily either laughing or crying and Scully call her name. The rest was muffled by white noise. 

  
“EMILY? ARE YOU OKAY?” 

 

He was pulling on his jacket and shoes and searching for his keys when the white noise stopped abruptly. “EMILY?” 

 

“Mulder?” Scully’s voice came through the speaker.

 

“Scully? Is everything okay?”

  
Scully laughed. “Yeah, Mulder, we’re fine. I’m so sorry to wake you up. It just snowed last night and Emily was excited.”

 

His entire body relaxed. “Thank god.”

 

Across the line, Scully laughed. “Although, it is payback for all those calls you gave me that scared me half to death.”

 

Mulder grinned into the handset. “If this is how you felt, I am  so sorry.”

 

“Listen, Mulder, if I keep Emily waiting any longer her head might actually explode.”

  
“Oh, then go. Don’t want any exploded heads. But… uh… I’m already dressed so…”

  
“Meet us at the park whenever you can, I’m pretty sure we’ll be there as long as possible.” Across the line, he could almost hear Emily tapping her foot by the door.

 

“I’ll see you guys soon.”

  
  
  
  
  


It wasn’t hard to find Scully in the park. She and Emily were about the only people there, and her red hair whipped back and forth like a beacon as she and their daughter engaged in an intense snowball fight. Despite Scully being one of the best shots he knew, she seemed to be missing every single one and graciously taking hits left and right from Emily.

 

He crept closer, which proved to be a difficult feat in crunchy snow. Emily saw him first, but didn’t say anything, just stood there quietly grinning. His long shadow from the street lights gave him away in the last few feet and Scully turned around just in time to throw off his aim and send the snowball flying right over her left shoulder. 

 

“AHH Mulder! Jesus. What was that?” 

  
“An unidentified flying object?” Scully looked at him, obviously trying to suppress a grin. 

 

“Shut up.”

  
“Daddy, be on my team!” Emily called out, romping through the snow to get closer to them.

 

“You got it.” He flashed a grin at Scully as he walked over to Emily. 

  
  
  


The snowball fight lasted until the sun began to peak through the buildings. Scully’s main target was Mulder, and he figured it was only slightly in payback for scaring her. Their battle concluded as more families with excited children began to pour into the park and he and Emily made their way over to Scully to shake her hand in truce. 

 

As soon as he could see her close up, he got lost in thought marvelling how pretty Scully was. Her cheeks and nose had turned pink and her hair was messy, and curly from the snow. He was only torn away from staring by Emily tugging at his arm. 

 

“MUL-der. Fox Mulder. Hello?” Emily waved at him, sounding scarily similar to her mother. 

 

“Sorry, what?” He glanced back at Scully and caught her cheeks turning an even deeper shade of red. 

 

“Can we get hot chocolate?” Emily pointed at a woman and her daughter sharing a steaming cup on the swingset. 

 

Scully picked up her daughter and swung her onto her hip. “That sounds great.” 

  
  


The three made their way across the street to the warm, nearly glowing cafe. Scully found a booth by the window and sat Emily down in it. Mulder tried desperately not to stare as Scully pulled off her jacket to reveal a very mismatched sweater and shirt combination, clearly having been thrown on in the dark. And she couldn’t have looked more adorable. 

 

Scully didn’t notice him staring this time, only set her jacket over the side of a chair and headed up to the counter to order for them. Emily was already sprawled over the back of the booth, staring out the window at the snow, still falling as the sky began to get lighter. 

 

It occured to Mulder, as he took his seat across from her that this could be the first time she’d seen snow. The winter before had been unnaturally dry in DC, and San Diego never got any snow. 

 

The kid only turned around when she heard Scully coming with her hot chocolate. Scully slid in the booth next to her daughter with three mugs and proceeded to pass them out. 

 

Scully’s hair was beginning to dry, and it curled around her face in an adorable manner. Once again, Mulder tried his best to keep from staring. 

 

Emily only looked up from her hot chocolate when she needed to come up for air. She sported a fancy chocolate mustache that Scully lovingly wiped away with a napkin. 

 

“Sweetie, you can take it slow with the hot chocolate. We have all day.”   
  
“I wanna go back out and build a snowman though,” Emily pouted briefly, before returning to gulping her hot chocolate down in a record breaking manner. 

 

“Of course we can still go out and build that snowman, Emily,” Scully smiled at her. “But I think Mulder might need a few more minutes to warm up.” She reached over and grasped his cold hands, warming them up with her own. 

 

“But Mommy, how long will the snow be here?” Emily, having lost interest in her hot chocolate was turned around to look out the window with concern. 

 

“Oh, it’ll be here all day. We’ll have plenty of snow for snowmen.” The kid’s shoulders visibly relaxed and she slid down the booth to face Scully and Mulder.

 

She looked at them with the same expression on her face that had gotten her hot chocolate past bedtime only a few days before. “Can you still drink your chocolate fast?”

 

Reluctantly, Mulder and Scully broke their hands apart and finished their hot chocolate for their daughter. 

 


	5. Tinsel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sleep deprived- plz dont judge me if this is awful

The one Christmas tradition that hadn’t changed since Emily came into their lives was the tradition of Scully buying a far too large Christmas tree and calling him around four in the afternoon and begging for help to get it up the narrow hallways and tight stairs of her old apartment building. 

 

It was never something he minded. Until that year he always found it kind of cute to see her in the lobby, leaning against the wall next to a tree that was nearly twice her height. He knew she had a big family and growing up likely had to pinch pennies and opt for the smaller tree. This year, however, was very different. 

 

When he arrived in her building, he was faced with an empty lobby. When he got on the elevator, the only sign that a tree had even been in the building were the scattered pine needles on the floor. 

 

That never happened. They’d never taken the elevator up, because it was never small enough to fit. As the floors dinged by, he began to worry that the needles weren’t even from her and maybe the “problem with the Christmas tree” Scully had spoken of over the phone was that Emily couldn’t handle it. 

 

He knocked hesitantly on their door and a second later a tiny voice yelled from the other side: “Who is it?”

 

“It’s Mulder.” Then came a few muffled thumps and the door opened to reveal Emily cloaked in her favorite fuzzy blanket. 

 

“Hi!” She stepped aside and let him in. 

 

“Emily, you can’t answer the door on your own,” Scully appeared just as Mulder was shrugging off his jacket. 

 

“But I asked if it was Mulder.”

  
“Still, just wait for me to get out here, okay?” Emily rolled her eyes and nodded. 

 

“Thank you.” Scully became aware of Mulder in the room and smiled at his presence. He glanced around the room and saw a tiny, yet very wide tree sitting in the corner. It couldn’t have been more than Scully’s height. 

 

“So, I see you were able to get the tree into the building this year?”

 

“Yeah. Emily was really set on this particular one and it wasn’t hard to get it up.” She looked very proud of herself. 

 

“Hmmm… What do you think, Emily? What makes this tree so special?” 

 

She put her fingers on her chin, as if to stroke an imaginary beard. “I think it looks like Santa.”

 

Mulder chuckled. “Yeah it kind of does.”

  
Emily looked up at him and grinned. “It’s fat around the middle and normally has presents with it.”

 

He noticed the boxes Scully was getting out of the closet, and he put his hand on Emily’s shoulder to direct her towards Scully.

 

“I think we should decorate it and make it more festive, like Santa, eh?” He got a smile in return. 

 

“Okay, Emily, what kind of lights do you want?” Scully asked. “Multi-colored or white?” 

 

“Multi-colored.” 

 

Scully pulled out a long string of lights and handed them to Mulder. “Would our resident tall person do the honors?”

 

“Ahhh so that’s what I’m here for.” 

 

Scully grinned back, her smile betraying the flirty side of her that she constantly tried to suppress. “Yeah, totally Mulder. We can’t stand you here, we just use you for your height.”

  
Between them, Emily gasped. “Mommy- We love Daddy, right?”

 

Scully laughed, and reached out to ruffle Emily’s hair. “Yeah, yeah we do. I was just joking.”

  
“Oh… okay.” Emily smiled, and Mulder tried not to think too hard about Scully’s admittance of love. 

 

He began wrapping the tree in the string of lights, which proved to be a relatively easy feat given he towered over the tree. Soon, Scully and Emily began hanging ornaments all over. He and Emily stopped a couple times to laugh over twenty something year old ornaments that various Scully children had made in elementary school, including what appeared to be a very flammable Rudolph ornament that was held back out of safety concerns. 

 

Eventually, they ran out of ornaments and the three stood back to admire their work. Most years, after Mulder had dragged the tree up the stairs, he’d stayed and helped Scully decorate it. They normally bickered more about placement of ornaments and how to correctly do the tinsel. 

 

Mulder immediately realized what had been missing from their tree- tinsel. It took him a second to realize why tinsel might be absent from their tree this year, and the answer was their very intelligent, yet still very much a four year old, child. 

 

Scully walked over to the light switch to turn off the living room lights, and then to the power outlet and plugged the tree in, immediately flooding the room in multi-colored lights. She came back over and slid her arm around his waist, glancing up at him with a smile so incredibly similar to the one she gave when he kissed him for the first time four nights before. 

 

Their attention was briefly drawn to Emily, who stood in awe of her Santa tree, and he felt Scully cuddle impossibly closer in the dim light. 


	6. Snow Globe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i suck at emotions, is it as bad as i thought?

In February of 1999, Scully was sent a box and letter from someone named Evelyn Sim. She said she was an aunt of Marshall Sim and had been charged with cleaning out the Sim’s residence. In the box she sent were a few momentos that she thought Emily should have. 

Inside the box, Scully found a baby blanket and stuffed giraffe, as well as some photo albums of Emily’s first few years. There were a handful of knick knacks as well, but she never had the chance to go through the entire thing.

Back then, in February, Emily was still having a hard time adjusting to her new home and rarely spoke. Scully pulled her aside one day and showed her the giraffe and the baby blanket. Immediately, she began crying and fell into Scully’s chest and held her tight until the muffled sobs began to fade. Both items were placed back in the box and weren’t spoken of again. Scully tried to talk to her about what was going on, about the bad memories that those seemed to be associated with, but Emily refused to say anything. 

So, Scully brought the box over to Mulder’s and asked him to just hide it in the back of a closet or something. And that was where it sat for ten months. 

  
  
  


Scully had asked him to pick her up from preschool in the hopes of having a few hours to buy presents and wrap them, and upon arriving at his apartment, Emily spent the better part of an hour perched on the arm of Mulder’s couch, watching the fish and yelling out possible names for all of them. He’d shown her how to feed the fish, and asked her to help him decide what the fishes Christmas present should be- the astronaut decoration or the alien. 

 

The kid picked the alien. He couldn’t wait to tell Scully. 

 

Emily soon became bored with the fish and slid down onto the sofa and declared his apartment wasn’t festive enough. Something about yesterday’s decorating session had 

 

“I may have some old decorations in my closet, hold on.” Her face lit up and she sat forward on her knees with excitement. 

 

Without even remembering the reason he last opened this closet, he rummaged through it and found the box of old Christmas lights and old decorations. 

 

“Here we go!” he called into the other room. 

 

Emily wandered back to where Mulder was standing among a sea of boxes, holding a single, broken down box in triumph. 

 

“Okay, stand back Emily, I’m going to try and make it into the living room without crashing into anything.”

 

Emily laughed in the same manner that her mother did whenever he voiced a paranormal theory. 

 

He did manage to make it out of the room without breaking anything, and set the box down on the ground and began pulling out colored lights and decorations he hadn’t used in years. It was a few minutes later that he realized Emily hadn’t followed him into the living room and he quickly made his way back to find her. Who knew what crap she’d find in some of those boxes. 

 

“Emily?”

 

The little girl sat cross legged on the rug, holding a snowglobe in her hand and observing it as though it were a piece of evidence. 

 

“Whatcha got there?” Mulder got closer to her and suddenly realized she might have gotten into the worst box in the closet. 

 

“Sa- san Die. San Die Go?” She looked at Mulder who stood there stunned without a clue of what to say. A second passed and he realized what she was asking. 

 

“Oh. Uh, San Diego. It’s… a place.”

 

“Did I used to live there?” her face showed that she already knew the answer.

 

“Yeah… listen. We can just put that stuff back. It’s probably not something that we need to go through right now without Mommy.”

 

Her tiny hands remained clasped tightly around the snowglobe. It was a few moments before she spoke again. “Was this my old mommy and daddy’s?”

  
“Yeah. It was.” There was a massive lump forming in his throat. 

 

“Oh.” She stared down at the snow globe. She shook it and the miniature city was covered in the snow. 

 

He heard her sniffle, and immediately sat down on his knees next to her and tried to see her face. “Hey, Emily?”

  
She turned her head so her bangs were blocking his view of her face. This kid was more like Scully than he realized. Mulder reached out and gently took the snow globe from her, and placed it gently back in the box, and shoved the entire thing out of reach. 

 

Turning back to Emily, he saw her looking straight at him with fat tears running down her chubby cheeks. She then got off her knees and climbed into his lap and hugged him tightly. He hugged his daughter tightly, not really sure what to do. Behind him he heard the click of Scully’s heels and wished she had gotten there a second earlier.

 

“I see the apartment has started being decorated, that’s some improvement.” Scully entered the room and stopped short, taking in the scene. 

 

Mulder turned to face Scully with Emily’s face still pressed into his shoulder. She immediately sat down next to them and reached out to rub Emily’s back. Scully then noticed the familiar box of momentos and understood the situation.

 

“I forgot it was in there…” Mulder whispered, feeling absolutely terrible for it. She moved her hand to squeeze his arm quickly, as if assuring him that it would be fine. 

 

Emily pulled away from him and migrated over into Scully’s arms, tears no longer falling over her face but she still appeared upset. 

 

Surprisingly, Emily was the first one to speak. “I get sad whenever I think of old mommy and daddy.”

 

“It’s okay, sweetie.” Scully held her closer and rubbed Emily’s back. 

 

“Sometimes I have bad dreams about you going away too.”

 

Mulder caught Emily’s eye. “You don’t have to worry about that, because we’re never gonna go anywhere, okay?” he gave her a smile. 

 

Emily wiped her eyes with a small fist. “Okay.”

  
Scully pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You can talk to us anytime, too. About anything. Any bad dreams, whatever. Okay?”   
  
Emily nodded. 

 

“So,” Mulder said. “You wanna still help me make the apartment more festive?”

 

Emily smiled and nodded again, getting up from Scully’s lap. 

 

She ran out into the living room, and they could hear her fumbling with some decoration. As he and Scully stood up, Mulder took an opportunity to apologize profusely for forgetting about the box and bringing everything up. 

 

“It’s okay, Mulder. At least we got a better sense of what she’s been having nightmares about.”

 

“Yeah.” That didn’t make him feel much better. 

 

“Hey.” She nudged his arm with her hand. “Relax about it. It’ll be fine. You have bigger things to worry about.”

  
He looked at Scully confused. “Like what?”

  
“Like what I could do with the knowledge that you own not one but two Spock costumes.” She pointed behind her at the last box he’d’ve hoped he kept. 

  
“Oh, god no.”

 

Her hand made its way into his as she led him from the room, giggling in that infectious laugh that made everything feel right.


	7. Lights

Mulder got to the office early, hoping for some reason that Scully would be there when he arrived. He worried constantly the night before of how Emily was doing, with all of the emotions that the afternoon before had triggered.

 

Truth be told, he had left for work before the sun was up, not wanting to stay sitting still. He briefly had pondered going over to Scully’s to see how they were doing, but in the event that Emily was having a decent night’s sleep, he didn’t want to wake either of them up.

 

Which was when he found himself in a 24 hour electronic store, pondering all the night lights.

 

There was one that cast the shapes of stars all over a room’s walls. Others were more standard. One sent any color light you wanted. He considered asking an employee which would be the best for a four year old who had intense trauma around the Christmas season.

 

He decided on the one with stars, remembering Emily’s choice of alien fish tank decoration the night before and made a mental note to see if she likes space.

 

He brought it to the register and the sleep-deprived employee began to ring him up.  
  
“Nice night light. It’s popular. We just got another shipment in today, but the company sent us the wrong order. Just a hundred fifty alien face night lights, rather than the star one.”   
  
“Wait,” Mulder stopped the kid. “Can I see the alien one?”

 

“Sure,” he shrugged, and disappeared into the back to find it.

 

When he returned, Mulder took a look at the light. It would cast green light in the shape of tiny alien faces.

 

He wasted a few minutes weighing the possibility that Emily would be freaked out by the faces over the possibility that she would think it was cute. In the end, he decided to buy them both- the stars and the aliens- and see what Scully thought.

  
  
  


She walked into the office a solid ten minutes late, and found him pacing holes into the ground.   
  
“Hey.”   
  
“Hi, Mulder. Everything okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. How was last night though?”  
  
“It was fine, she didn’t really talk anymore about her old parents, and we just watched Frosty and she fell asleep.”

 

His entire body relaxed out of relief.

 

“I’m so glad.”  
  
“Were you really that worried?”

 

“Kind of. I just didn’t want to have made things harder for her than they had to have been.”

 

Scully smiled sweetly. “She was fine. I think we handled it well.”  


“Okay, good. I uh, I was thinking. Back after Samantha was abducted, I had a hard time sleeping, too.”

  
“You had a hard time sleeping _then_?” Scully smirked.

 

“The way my parents handled it was they got me a really nice nightlight. I picked one up for her if you might wanna try it.” He reached into the side of the desk and pulled out the bag.

 

“Actually, I got two. I wasn’t sure which one she’d want.”  


Scully peeked in the bag and started laughing. “Aliens, Mulder?”   
  
“She picked the alien figurine over the astronaut yesterday! I thought maybe she was starting to get interested in the subject.”

 

Scully pulled the two lights out and looked back and forth between the two. She handed him back the star one. “Return this one, Mulder. Sadly, I fear she may be taking after you in the alien department.”

 

Mulder smiled proudly, but Scully continued.

 

“Or she’s just a four year old who thought aliens looked silly.” Mulder rolled his eyes. “Either way, it was really sweet of you to get these. I’m sure she’ll be excited to try it tonight.”

 

And then there was that look that Scully had given him a week ago. And before he knew it, her warm lips were over his for far too short a time. When she pulled back, she squeezed his hand and turned to put the light in her purse so she’d remember it. Mulder, on the other hand, had gone limp, and was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to concentrate the rest of the day.


	8. Evergreen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the formatting btw, google docs will be the death of me

“Emily, you have to put on your sweater, Mulder’s going to be here any minute.” Scully chased her daughter through the house. 

 

“NO! It’s itchy!” Emily called back. 

 

“But you helped pick it out! See, it has snowflakes all over it.” Emily paused and let Scully gain ground on her.

 

“But it’s itchy.” She pouted at her mother.

 

“What if we had you wear another shirt underneath it? Grandma will love seeing the sweater at dinner tonight. You know, she knit me one just like this when I was little?”   
  


Emily stared up at her, shifting from foot to foot, deciding.

  
“Can I just try the shirt?”

  
Scully smiled. “Yeah of course. Just wait here a second.” And she disappeared back into Emily’s bedroom. 

 

When Scully returned, Emily was nowhere to be found. The natural panic the X-Files had ingrained in her set in, and she began running around the apartment, yelling her name, and throwing open cabinet doors. 

 

Mulder burst through the front door just as Scully was re-checking the kitchen, and looked just as panicked.

 

“What happened?”

  
“I don’t know, I think she’s hiding but I can’t find her- she was just standing right there a second ago.”

  
“Okay, Scully, relax, breathe. She's probably just hiding, we'll find her.”

  
And at that moment, they heard a tiny giggle coming from the Christmas tree. 

 

“Actually, Scully, maybe we’ll find her sooner than you thought.” He crept over to the tree and got down on all hands and knees and peaked through. There, behind strings of multicolored light and evergreen branches was their daughter, looking far too proud and completely oblivious to the ninety seconds of terror that she’d induced.

  
“Come on out, Emily,” he nodded his head towards the living room. She reluctantly rolled her eyes and crawled out from under the tree. 

 

“Emily, you can’t do that again,” Scully said, bending down to talk to her. “That was really scary, when I thought you were gone.”   
  


Emily sighed. “Okay, Mommy. I won’t.” 

 

Scully smiled at her. “Thank you. Now let’s get you into that sweater.”   
  
Emily immediately turned to Mulder with her own terror-filled eyes. “Daddy, please don’t make me wear the sweater,” she begged.

 

“What? Is it really itchy?” Both Scully and Emily nodded. This disagreement had gone on longer than he could even imagine. 

 

“Ummm… Emily, how about this? If you wear the sweater for a few minutes at Mag- Grandma’s- then you can change into a softer shirt for dinner?”

  
Scully turned to Emily. “How would that sound?”

  
Emily sighed, “Okay. Mommy, can you go get my pink flower shirt?” 

 

Scully reached forward and picked a few pine needles from Emily’s hair. “No way, you’re coming with me. We’re gonna need eyes on you from now on.”

 

Emily flashed Mulder another pleading look as she went reluctantly with Scully to find a suitable outfit.    
  


As they prepared to leave, Scully got a few things from the fridge her mother asked her to bring over. Mulder held the door for her as they left the apartment, and held Emily’s hand on the walk down to the car, keeping careful observation of the kid who was kneading and stretching her sweater collar like pizza dough. When he picked her up to put her in her car seat, he felt the prick of the sweater’s fabric. 

  
“Jeez, it really is itchy, isn’t it?”

  
Emily nodded vigorously. 

 

He lowered his voice. “As a veteran of itchy sweaters at family dinners, I’m gonna promise that I will keep your Mommy distracted as much as I can so you can switch into your soft shirt sooner.”   
  
Emily grinned. “Thank you, Daddy.”   
  
He smiled down, and then buckled her in and closed the door. 

 

When he got into the passenger seat, Scully leaned across the divider and spoke quietly in his ear. “I heard that, Mulder.”   
  
“Scully, the sweater really is so itchy, it’s cruel.”   
  
“Mulder, I just wanted to say- make sure Mom at least takes a picture of her before she goes about destroying the evidence of its existence.”


	9. Wrapping Paper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again idk wtf is up with the formatting

“Thanks for doing this with me.” Scully smiled at him, as she unlocked the door to her apartment.    
  
“No problem. I’d love to help,” he said as he followed her through the silent apartment. It did feel slightly strange for them to be spending time together, alone, outside of work. While they may have enjoyed each other’s company from time to time before Emily, she had become a constant presence in their lives that it almost felt weird to be without her. And even more so with the more romantic aspect to his and Scully’s relationship that he desperately hoped they were spiraling towards.

 

“So, there are a couple things she asked for that I still need to get, but at this point I just wanna get everything wrapped because she’s starting to get nosy.” 

 

“Well, Scully. She does come from detective DNA- and WOW.” She opened her closet door to reveal stacks of shopping bags.

 

“Yeah,” she guiltily looked up at him. “I kind of made an unconscious decision to spoil her rotten.”   
  
“You know, I’m getting her a bunch of stuff, too?”   
  
“Yeah, but we decided- YOU’RE Santa gifts, I’m Parent Gifts.”

 

“That’s no use if the parent gifts upstage poor old Saint Nick.” Scully smiled and rolled her eyes.

 

“Mulder, I think ‘flying elf’ is always going to have a safe status in a four year old’s mind.”   
  


“You never know, Scully. This,” he held up a random box, “uh… chemistry set, could change her mind. Wait, you got a four year old a chemistry set?”   
  
“Shut up, she said she kind of thought science was cool. We were watching this documentary a few days ago… and I’ve lost you.”    
  
“No, you haven’t lost me.” In fact, he felt even more attentive. This woman was probably the cutest person he’d ever met. “I just think it’s adorable that you and Emily watch science documentaries.”   
  
Scully rolled her eyes, but her cheeks briefly reddened. 

  
  


They began wrapping the dozens of presents that spilled out of Scully’s closet. She wasn’t kidding, she was planning on spoiling the kid. There were a few she asked to be set aside, having bought them for Matthew or one of Charlie’s kids. 

 

She spent a solid twenty minutes carefully teaching him how to wrap a present correctly and guided his hands in a similar manner as he had at the baseball park that summer before. 

 

They finished with twenty minutes to spare, Maggie had promised to have Emily back by six thirty. It took a few tries for Mulder to stand up, his legs having fell asleep hours before. He cleaned up the wrapping paper scraps and followed Scully out to the kitchen. 

 

“You know, Mulder, you owe us a dinner. You wanna stay tonight?” 

 

“Sure, I’d love to.” There was no way he could think of to describe how much he loved this woman. He gazed at her as she simply searched the refrigerator for a possible dinner, and felt the inexplicable urge to kiss her. She’d kissed him already. Twice, actually. Why shouldn’t he kiss her.

 

“Mulder? You okay?” she appeared in front of him and waved a hand in front of his face.

 

“What? Yeah. Sorry. I’m fine.” She was right there. All he had to do was bend his head a few inches.

 

_ Just do it. _

 

“Hello!!!” Maggie burst through the door with Emily before he even got a chance. 

 

“Hey!” Scully ran up and hugged her daughter. 

 

He watched the scene play out and smiled, never having felt happier. He’d have other chances to kiss her. He turned to focus on helping with the dinner Scully had started. 


	10. Gingerbread

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so i know it's after Christmas but i'll definitely have everything finished before the year is over and I'm hoping sooner, but my brain is kind of an asshole so it might be right up till new years

Scully took a sip of the full mug of coffee that had long been cold, and leaned back to watch Mulder pick Emily up and swing her over the kitchen table so she could reach the top of the gingerbread house. 

 

“There we go!” he said, as Emily placed a gumdrop on top as the chimney. 

 

“There we go!” she copied. 

 

“It looks good, Emily,” Mulder said, setting her down on the floor and turning to the candy buffet on the counter. “What should we put on next?”

 

She climbed up onto her chair and ogled the assortment of candies, all of which she knew were off limits for eating until the gingerbread house was done. Mulder and Scully had both noted how smart the kid was early on, as she steered them carefully away from picking any of the Red Vines- her favorite.

 

That said, Scully’s rule hadn’t stopped Mulder from stealing a piece, although he did so every time Emily’s back was turned so as not to set a bad example. 

 

Emily pointed at the ribbon candy. “That could be a fence.”

  
Mulder’s jaw dropped. “That would make an amazing fence.” 

 

Emily beamed with pride. 

 

Scully set down the coffee and approached the table, taking the jar of frosting and knife. “Do  you want the fence to go all the way around, or just in the front?”

 

Emily pursed her lips and stared at the house contemplating the decision. “Just the front.”

  
“Okay.” Scully began glopping frosting down on the cardboard so the candy didn’t fall off. 

 

Mulder, carrying Emily and a handful of ribbon candy followed behind her and laid the pieces down as a fence. 

  
Emily gasped. “Mommy! We could put one of the… strawberry ones on the fence like a mailbox!”

  
Scully turned around and grabbed a strawberry hard candy. “Here you go.”

  
Carefully, Emily placed it just right and stood back to admire her work. 

 

“It needs a snowman. Like the one we made in the park.”

  
She glanced up, between her parents with big blue eyes. Scully looked back at the plate designated for marshmallows and found it empty. She was about to break the news to Emily, when she glanced at Mulder and caught him frozen, mid-bite. 

 

“Mulder.”

  
Emily looked up at her father, and her expression quickly devolved into heartbreak. “Daddy?”

  
Mulder sheepishly swallowed. “In my defense, there was only one left.”

  
“Emily, how about we try making a snowman with the mini-marshmallows from the cabinet?”

  
“I’m so sorry, Emily,” Mulder leaned down and attempted to calmly diffuse the situation, and stop the four year old’s lower lip from quivering. “But maybe my love of marshmallows is a good thing?”

 

“How?” the lower lip stopped wobbling, but still remained in a pout.

 

“Well, the mini marshmallows are more to the scale of the gingerbread house.” He glanced up at Scully who was searching through the cabinet for their emergency bag of mini marshmallows.

 

“What’s a scale?”

  
“It’s uhhh… here.” He turned and walked on his knees towards the kitchen table. “See, how small the door that we put on it is? It’s only three peppermints tall.”

  
Emily slowly nodded. 

 

“That means the Gingerbread-Mulder is only about that tall, right?”

  
Again, she nodded.

 

“And so if he and Gingerbread-Scully and Gingerbread-Emily were to make a snowman, do you think it would be a big marshmallow snowman, or a mini-marshmallow snowman?”

 

“Mini,” she said, firmly.

 

“So, would a mini-marshmallow snowman be okay?”

  
She smiled, seemingly having forgotten about the big marshmallow debacle already. “Yeah!”

 

“Great!” 

 

Scully kneeled down next to them with the open bag of marshmallows. “You wanna make the snowman? We can dip marshmallows in this spilled icing and stick them together.”

  
“Okay.” Emily began fumbling with the marshmallows and icing with her tiny, chubby hands, lips pursed in obvious focus. As she was doing so, Mulder stood up, his knees beginning to kill him. Scully followed and they began rinsing some of the empty plates and placing them in the dishwasher.

  
“Nice save there,” she nudged him. 

 

“Thanks, I’ll remember not to clean out the marshmallows next year.”

 

“Good.” Internally, they each felt a warmth spread in their chests at the prospect of next year, and every year after that. That warmth was briefly interrupted by Emily exclaiming: “Daddy!” as she caught him red-handed stealing gumdrops from the plate. 

 

“Hey, I never said anything about the gumdrops,” he glanced between the Scully women, both of whom were staring him down. “Okay, fine,” He sighed.

 

Emily turned back around and Mulder snuck one more gumdrop off the plate. He glanced at Scully, who caught him in the act.    
  
“Uhh-”   
  
“Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything,” she mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear. 

 

She reached towards him and for a split second his heart stopped, thinking she was about to kiss him, but she simply grabbed a gumdrop for herself and took a step back, leaning down to help Emily, all the while flashing him a devilish grin that told him she knew full well what he thought would happen. 


	11. Sleigh Ride

Miraculously, the snow managed to stay for longer than anyone thought possible. Even more than a week after it’s first snowfall, DC still was blanketed by a layer of snow. 

 

Since Emily had come into their lives, Mulder and Scully had found that talking about cases around the apartments was becoming less and less of a good idea. She parroted many of the phrases and words they used and it was only a matter of time before they got a call from her school asking how a four year old knew about exhumation of bodies and the history of many cults. 

 

Since a fateful day when she mentioned something minor about vampires at a Sunday dinner with Maggie, Mulder and Scully had been more careful. So, whenever they needed to speak about a case, they took to walking through the park down the street from Scully’s apartment. 

 

Their workdays had gotten longer around the holidays, both subconsciously wanting to finish as much work as they could in order to spend more time with Emily. Maggie had now regularly begun to pick up Emily from school, and it allowed Mulder and Scully to walk and talk quietly through the park after work, debriefing the day and making a plan for the next. 

 

It was Saturday, the eleventh of December, and Maggie had already been over to see Emily when Mulder showed up at her door with a grim look on his face.

 

  
It took two laps around the park in the crunching snow for them to figure out a plan for the following week. Neither were fond of the prospect of going out of state for a case neither even wanted and Mulder promised to call Skinner and beg him to assign other agents. They’d begun their trek back to the apartment, when Mulder heard Scully squeak and turned to find her ankle deep in a slush puddle.

 

“Crap. Fuck. Shit,” Scully began going through curse words alphabetically as she shook sludge off her shoe. 

 

“Jeez, Scully, that looks cold.”   
  
“You think?” she snapped. One hand reached out and grabbed his forearm to steady herself as she took off her shoe and let water drip from the inside.

 

“You wanna get a cab?” he offered, trying to be helpful. 

 

She slowly lowered her foot into the cold shoe. “No, it would be pointless. We live four blocks away and it’s 6pm.”   
  
As they began walking, or in Scully’s case more of limping, Mulder realized she’d said “we live” not that she did. And despite the fact that she probably just misspoke, he took a chance and reached over and grabbed her hand.   
  
“Mulder- what?”   
  
“You’re hands are frozen.”   
  
“Yeah, I know. It was slush.” Despite her tone, she twined their fingers together, and held his hand tightly.

  
  


They made it a few feet before Mulder really saw that Scully was in pain.    
  
“Scully, let’s just try and find a cab.”   
  
“Mulder, I’m fine. I’m just a little cold. Calm down.” Cold Scully really wasn’t fun. 

 

At that moment, Mulder saw an opportunity. An opportunity in the form of a twenty-dollar-a-ride, decked with fully with bells and ribbons, sleigh. He tightened his grip on Scully’s hand and began pulling them both towards it. 

 

“Mulder, no, can’t we just walk?” 

 

He didn’t answer until they caught up with the sleigh. When he did speak, he didn’t even bother addressing Scully. 

  
“Can we get a ride? It’s only four blocks.” The cabbie nodded. 

 

Mulder jumped right in, but Scully stood by the side, lips pursed.

 

“Come on, Scully. It’ll be fun.” He threw her a grin. 

 

“Mulder,” she began, and then sighed. “Fine. But if Emily sees us riding in a Santa-like sleigh without her, you’re dealing with the wrath.”

 

“Deal.” He extended his hand to help her up.    
  


 

The ride was fairly short, and Scully’s teeth chattered most of the way. Mulder took another chance and reached over and wrapped an arm around her. He couldn’t be sure, both because of the noise of traffic and because of Scully’s infamous inability to acknowledge when she needed something, but he thought he heard her mutter, “thanks”, before cuddling deeper into his side. 


	12. Secret Santa

They’d promised each other that they wouldn’t exchange gifts. Scully had stated that very explicitly. They’d give each other small gifts as “Santa” on Christmas. But no extravagant exchange.

 

What she didn’t realize was that Mulder had a long, well-documented history of finding loopholes, most, in fact, had led to the beginning of the X-Files.

 

He carefully wrapped her gift, wanting nothing about it’s packaging to give away the fact that this wasn’t from the mythical elf. On it, he stuck a printed label, so as not to give away his handwriting, that only said “To Dana, From your Secret Santa”

 

She’d said only santa gifts, but nothing about Secret Santa gifts.

 

Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, and Scully wouldn’t be into work until the next day, he decided to head down to the office and place it on her desk, so as to be just as surprised when she walked in tomorrow as he was. Just because he was Mulder.

 

When he arrived at the Hoover Building, Mulder was surprised to find the light on in their office. Rarely did he forget to turn it off, and the janitorial staff rarely messed with their jumbled office if they could help it.

 

Opening the door cautiously, Mulder found Scully standing over his desk, caught red-handed.

 

“Well, well, well. Fancy to find you here.”  
  
“Mulder-” she began, hands now conveniently hidden behind her back.

 

“Whatcha got there, Scully?” he tilted his head as if trying to get a peak at whatever she was hiding.

 

“Nothing. Although, I should ask you the same question.” She jutted her chin forward, challenging him to reveal his package.

 

“Oh, this?” he took the present out. “I uh, bumped into your Secret Santa in the hall, and he asked me to deliver this… little something.” He handed it to her, and jammed his hands in his leather jacket’s pockets.

 

“Secret Santa? Who types his labels? And prints them on the same cardstock I saw you steal from the copy room two days ago?”

 

“Dammit. You’re good.” He looked at his feet, jokingly, in shame.

 

“It’s okay, Mulder,” she pulled something out from behind her. She reached out and handed him a rectangular package. “I got you something too.”  
  
“Awwww.” He flashed her a grin, and they each quickly jumped in their chairs and began tearing at the wrappings like two kids on Christmas morning.

 

Mulder was the first to let out a chuckle. “I suppose I deserve this.” He held up a copy of Superstars of the SuperBowls II.

 

“I saw it and couldn’t resist.” She didn’t look up from her package. He clearly needed to cut down on the tape usage.

 

Finally, she freed the cylindrical tube from it’s paper. She glanced up at him and cocked an eyebrow at the unmarked cardboard tube. He watched as she pried the top open with her fingernails, and glanced inside.  

 

“Mulder?” She pulled out the contents and glanced up again. “What’s this?”  
  
“I just saw it and thought of you.”   
  
She began unrolling the t-shirt. “Mulder. Apollo 11? Really?”   
  
He grinned as wide as he could as she flashed it to him. “It was the thirtieth anniversary this past July. I meant to do something special, but Emily was just warming up to everything and…” his voice trailed off as she started examining the shirt.

 

“‘Demonstrating the power of teamwork’” Scully started to read off the blurb on the back of the shirt. “Mulder, does this mean you’re going to cooperate with future teamwork seminars? Even if it involves piles of furniture?”  
  
“Only if Emily’s on our team. She builds a mean pillow fort. We should start saving for architecture school.” Scully rolled her eyes.

 

“Thank you, Mulder. It’s really sweet.” They both knew she’d never get a chance to wear it, and instead Emily would steal it the second it was brought through her doorway and wear it as a nightshirt for years to come.

 

“Thank you too.” He held up the VHS tape.

 

“I’d invite you over to watch it, but if there are no dancing snowmen in it, Emily won’t allow it on the premises.”

 

He let out an exaggerated sigh, and they shared a grin across their tiny office.


	13. Stockings

It was their first fight. Emily stomped her tiny foot on the floor and no matter how Mulder tried, he couldn’t get her to understand the fact that he didn’t normally hang stockings up, and he was already going to come over on Christmas. 

 

“But Daddy, you _have to_.” Those Scully-eyes of hers never ceased to be intense. 

 

“Sweetie, it’ll be fine. Let’s just hang up your stocking. Where does Mommy wanna put it?”

  
“But Santa won’t know where to bring your presents.”

  
“Santa doesn’t normally bring presents for grown-ups,” he pointed out, glancing up at Scully for back-up, only to see her expression make it very clear he was on his own. 

 

“But Mommy has a stocking!”   
  
“Yeah, but it’s the one Grandma made her, just like the one she made you. It matches. I don’t have one, I’m sorry, Emily.” He was pleading with her now. Mulder hated to see Emily angry. 

 

“Gramma can give you one!” Emily’s face lit up with her idea.

 

“I dunno, Emily. She’s probably really busy getting ready for your cousins. I’ll ask her about it for next year, how would that be?”

  
“NO!” Emily stomped her foot.

 

“Emily,” Scully warned. “Remember when we said that since there are people below us, we can’t be stomping?”

  
Emily took a few deep breaths, a technique no doubt inherited from Scully, and gave Mulder one last glare before taking off sprinting towards her room. She slammed the door behind her. 

 

“Jeez, I thought we had almost a decade before she was a teenager,” Scully joked, looking over at Mulder. His expression displayed nothing but pain. 

 

“Mulder, come on. She’ll come around and understand. Once we start making bigger plans for Christmas and she sees that you’ll be there the entire time, she’ll lose interest in the stocking thing. And worst comes to worst, Mom can whip you up a stocking no problem.”

 

“I don’t want to bother her…”   
  
Scully smiled. “It’ll really be no trouble for her. She’s already making one for Matthew when he comes. I can let her know we need one more.”   
  
“Just ask her if she has time.” Mulder gave her that pleading look that always said he was scared of being too much of a burden. From her position in the kitchen, he could see Scully roll her eyes and trudge all the way out to where he stood and took a hold of his hand and squeezed.

 

“Whatever happens, it’ll be fine. But I’m telling you, she really won’t mind. Now, enough with this subject.” They shared a smile. “We will need to talk about what all your plans are for the holidays and when we get to see you.”   
  
It took all he had not to pull her impossibly close and press their faces together. But they both knew now wasn’t the time. 

 

“I’m yours… all Christmas if you want. That said, I don’t want to intrude…”

 

“Mulder, you couldn’t possibly intrude.” It looked like there was more she wanted to say. In fact there was, all sorts of gushy bullshit, about how he was part of the family now and he didn’t even need an invite anymore, but none that she was willing to say aloud. 

 

“Great, I’ll see you Christmas Eve, and then again Christmas morning before Maggie’s.”   
  
“Or… you could just stay here overnight. I mean, you don’t have to, but if it would make things easier, and certainly Emily would be happy with keeping you captive here.”

 

Mulder fought the urge to make a joke, to make the mood less serious, but he just squeezed the hand he forgot he’d been holding. “I’d love to. That would be great.”

 

“Really?” a tiny voice from behind the couch asked.

 

“Emily?” she walked cautiously into view.

 

“Is Daddy really staying here on Christmas?” It couldn’t be a coincidence how wide her eyes were, and how much her lower lip was wobbling. Scully smiled at Mulder and back at Emily. 

 

“Yep, he is!” 

 

“So, Santa will bring his presents here?”

  
Mulder nodded. “He’ll know automatically, because he’s magic. Would it be okay if the stocking waited till next year?”

  
Emily nodded, a smile breaking out on her face.

 

“Great, now, Scully, where would you like us to hang Emily’s stocking?”   



	14. Chocolate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i know i suck and the holiday season is kind of over, but its been a rough few days and im finishing this monstrosity if its the last thing i do so yeah
> 
> again sorry for how weird this spacing is i have no idea why it does this or how to fix it

Nothing about Mulder or Scully’s live since the X-Files had been dug up had been conventional. With mere everyday life riddled with alien babies, and mutant viruses, and evil twins, it wasn’t a surprise that parenthood would come with some snags. 

Namely one snag. And it came in the form of a five am phone call from Emily’s preschool telling all parents of a power generator malfunction that lead to the closing of school. Both Mulder and Scully had used up their days off because of one thing or another during the past year, and so they were at a loss.

 

All of which led to Emily being snuck into their basement office for an hour before Maggie was able to drive into the city to take her for the day. 

  
  


Emily had been there before, just briefly when Scully had to pick up something from the office. Every time she came, she was always excited by the amount of buttons accessible to a three year old. In the few times she was there, either Scully or Mulder always had to have eyes on her at any given moment in order to steer her away from any panic buttons that might put the building on lockdown, and towards harmless elevator buttons. 

 

Aside from the button addiction, Emily’s presence was never a problem, however neither Mulder or Scully had thought what Skinner would think if she was there for an extended period of time. So, they snuck her in, and the only one who knew was Carl, working the front security desk, who was far too charmed by Emily’s chubby cheeks and bow in her hair to bother to comment to the Assistant Director. 

 

Late in the morning, Scully was called to Forensics to get autopsy results, and Mulder stepped out of the office to make a copy for all of a minute. When he returned, the office was empty, though Emily’s drawings still spread all over the floor, as if she simply vanished into thin air. 

 

Mulder’s mind went to the worst-case scenario in a millisecond, and he began opening all the cabinets and closets, checking under overloaded tables, and running up and down the hall between the office, the copy room, and the elevator, calling Emily’s name panicked. On some level, he desperately hoped she was just hiding again, but on the verge of panicked-induced tears, Mulder called Scully on her cellphone. 

 

“Mulder, what is it? I was just about to head into Skinner’s office to drop off the forensics report, is this an emergency?” 

 

“Kind of… no. No it’s not. I can handle it.” He hung up and began to pray to himself that he could find their daughter before Scully got back down there. 

 

He began rechecking the cabinets in the office when the phone rang.   
  
“Mulder.”

 

“You lost Emily?” she didn’t even bother with a greeting. 

 

“Shit. How do you know?” his teeth were seconds away from gnawing a hole in his lip. 

 

“You may want to head up to AD Skinner’s.” 

 

Mulder was already running out the door, taking stairs two steps at a time. When he reached Skinner’s office, he found Scully sitting across the desk, with Emily on her lap, the baby’s face covered in chocolate, with foil wrappers littering the floor like confetti. 

 

“Agent Mulder. Glad you can join us. I didn’t realize that today our youngest FBI agent ever would be joining the Bureau.” Skinner’s expression was impossible to read, whether it was of amusement or disappointment, or a mix of both. 

 

“Sir, I’m so sorry. She was out of sight for all of a minute. I don’t know what happened.” 

 

“If I might enlighten you, she seemed to have gotten on the elevator, ended up on this floor by accident, and followed Arlene through the hall, I’m guessing due to the red hair.” Skinner leaned over his desk, and looked at Emily. “You thought you saw your mom?” 

 

She nodded. 

 

“I’m sorry, sir,” Mulder repeated. 

 

“It’s alright. It was nice to make a dent in the chocolate stash. Just don’t make a habit of it, okay, agents? This is a federal agency, not a daycare.” He glanced at Emily, who was squirming in her mother’s lap. “Although, Emily, feel free to come take as much chocolate from the bowl as you want.” Emily’s chubby face broke into a grin. 

 

“Emily, can you say thank you to Assistant Director Skinner?”

  
“Thank you… erm…” she glanced at Mulder and the two shared a devilish grin. “Thank you, Skinman.” She looked again at Mulder for assurance that she did it right. He grinned at her proudly, only to turn back to Skinner and get the eyeroll of the century. 

 

“Dismissed, agents.” Skinner said, taking the bowl of holiday chocolates off his desk and holding it within Emily’s grasp. She took a piece and looked up at him. “Thank you.” 

 

Skinner nodded, and gave her the smallest smile ever recorded. Scully silently began to lead Emily out of the room, and Mulder followed close behind, stopping briefly to reach for a chocolate, only to have the bowl yanked from arms reach by Skinner. 

 

“Skinman, Mulder? Really?” Skinner asked, in a monotone.

 

Mulder shrugged and pursed his lips trying not to smile. He then followed his daughter and Scully out of the room. 

 


	15. Marshmallows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know it's been forever, but my brain sucks but hey I got it done

“Mulder, would you just relax and light the candles?” Scully asked, curled up on the couch with her glass of wine, her facial expression indicating how pissed she’d be if she had to get up and light them herself. 

 

“I just read this article and I was just worried about carbon monoxide from candles. This is an old building, it might not be properly ventilated-”

  
“Mulder, it’ll be fine, just light them.” 

 

“But with Emily-”

  
“Mulder, if the mix of candles and old buildings killed, we wouldn’t have made it to the invention of the light bulb. Now set the mood.” She took a long sip of her drink as Mulder reluctantly lit them and took a seat beside her on the couch. 

 

Scully began to wiggle around in the little nest of blankets she’d made, and after a moment pulled out the remote and pressed play. 

 

“Steel Magnolias, Scully?” 

 

“It’s a classic American movie, Mulder.” She flashed him a grin. She knew from the start he wouldn’t be paying attention to the movie. 

 

“Well, in that case I get to put butter on the popcorn.” Scully opened her mouth to protest, but he continued. “Scully, this is a partnership. We have to make compromises.” He gave her a smirk as he grabbed the bowl from her reach and headed into the kitchen. 

 

“Mulder, I’m telling you, so much butter consumption can’t be good.”

  
“You know what, Scully?” Behind her, she heard him open a cabinet and looked over her shoulder to see what he was doing. His back was turned, reaching up to the top shelf, a sliver of his waist being exposed between his t-shirt and sweatpants. He turned back to her and held up a clear, plastic bag triumphantly. “I think I’m going to embrace malnutrition and melt marshmallows over the popcorn as well.” 

 

She knew nothing she said could affect what was now a mission for this man, so she just rolled her eyes and turned to the TV to watch the opening credits roll by. The opening started and she didn’t hear a word of it, just focused on the soft humming of Mulder at work in the kitchen behind her. She tried very hard to focus on the imagery in the movie playing in front of her but all she could listen to was the suspicious popping and crackling. 

 

Eventually, Mulder reappeared with a bowl full of popcorn and extended it to her. She stared at him questioningly and he thrust the bowl towards her again.

 

“Come on, Scully. Try it. I’m not that bad a cook.”

 

“Well, Mulder. That remains to be proven.” Cautiously, she took a few pieces off the top, covered in sticky marshmallow goop, and placed them in her mouth. From across the couch, Mulder was moving slowly closer to her, staring at her mouth more focused than on some of their hardest cases.    
  
“Well, Scully. What’s the verdict?” his voice was softer now. Deeper. If she didn’t know better, she would have said almost huskier. 

 

She chewed the popcorn for a moment, pretending to be staring at the TV deep in thought, before she turned back to him. “Well. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.” 

 

His face broke into a small, but proud smile. “That’s good.”   
  
“Okay. I never said good. There were about three different textures in that one bite and I’m pretty sure my hand will never not be sticky again.” Before she had even finished her sentence, he was already lifting her fingers to his mouth and licking them clean. 

 

“Mulder?!” she let out an involuntary giggle. 

 

“What? I’m just helping repair the damage that I’ve done.” When he finally released her fingers, he glanced up at her face and it was met with a playful eye roll. 

 

There was an awkward silence between them, neither sure where to go with the new territory they were beginning to uncover. They both ended up turning towards the television, and pretended to pay attention to the bustling wedding preparations playing on screen. 

 

The movie continued on, and they began taking small handfuls of Mulder’s mushy, marshmallow popcorn concoction. Whether they were naturally drawn together or both Scully and Mulder put in the extra effort, by the time the movie was ending, their hands were clasped together over a nearly empty popcorn bowl. Mulder began unconsciously stroking his thumb back and forth over her skin. He didn’t dare look at Scully, out of terror that her feelings for him were not the same, and knowing that if he saw her face, he’d know immediately. 

 

Before long, he couldn’t take it anymore. He glanced over at her and saw her staring at him with a look that was almost hungry. And before he knew it, the popcorn bowl was tossed onto the coffee table and she was in his lap, her marshmallow-sticky lips pressed firmly against his. Her fingers roamed over his jaw and neck. This wasn’t at all what he’d expected when they’d decided to have a movie night, but it was more than welcome. His tongue found its way into her mouth and they began devouring each other, only breaking apart for air after what seemed like hours. 

 

As they caught their breath, they slowly began taking in their surroundings. The movie had finished without either realizing it. They could hear a faint rattling in the radiator. Their foreheads were pressed together as they panted like marathon runners. Scully ground her hips into him, signaling without words that they should keep going. He began to kiss his way down her neck when Scully gasped, more abruptly and surprised than he was hoping for. He was about to ask what happened when he heard: “Emily?”

 

Scully hopped off his lap and walked into the kitchen as Mulder swivelled on the couch to see what was going on. There Emily stood, holding a marshmallow mid-bite as her tiny hand reached up onto the counter for another from the bag. 

 

“Emily, what are you doing up?” Scully asked, in the most gentle voice that she could. From his position on the couch, he couldn’t hear what her answer was, but from Emily’s marshmallow-covered cheeks he could tell the answer wasn’t a surprise. 

 

He watched as Scully pried the remaining marshmallows from Emily’s hands and led her into the bathroom to re-brush her teeth. She seemed to have the situation under control, so Mulder turned back to the TV and reached forward to take the remote, beginning to rewind the tape for her. Behind him, he could hear Scully putting Emily back in bed, discussing in brief the reason for her being awake. He turned around to make eye contact with Scully just as she was closing the door on Emily’s room. 

 

“Everything okay? Other than a sudden midnight craving for marshmallows?” 

 

Scully sighed as she made her way back to the couch, sitting so close their legs practically overlapped. “Apparently,just a craving.”   
  
“You don’t think it was a nightmare, and she wanted to come out and cuddle with us then got distracted by the open bag on the counter?”   
  
Scully sighed and shook her head. “That was kind of what I thought, but she didn’t seem to be in that panicked state she normally gets in when she has nightmares.” Together, they watched the tape rewind on the screen. 

 

“That’s good,” Mulder said, quietly. “I’m glad she’s doing better.”

  
“Me too. Although she did have a few questions about what we were doing when she walked in. But I think I bought us a little more time.”

  
“We should, um...” he looked at Scully. “What were we doing?”

 

Her right eyebrow raised. “Do I really have to explain it to you?” she joked. 

 

“I just wanted to clarify if it was a heat of the moment kind of thing or-”

 

“Not,” she finished. “It was not.”

 

“Good.” They shared a grin, both feeling a warmth spreading in their chests. 

  
Despite how desperately he wanted to throw caution to the wind and be irrational, he knew it would be best if they kept going at the pace they had been. After a moment, Mulder broke the silence.“I… I should probably be going. It’s a school night.” He chuckled halfheartedly at the end. 

 

“Yeah… I guess so.” 

 

He awkwardly stood up, trying not to make eye contact with Scully, so as to not get drawn in by the lust and love that was coursing through his veins. This was right. He should walk out of the apartment. Let things progress naturally and slowly. It was what was best for their daughter.

 

And as much as it pained both of them, Scully walked Mulder to the door. They stood beneath the arch, both silently debating whether it would be dangerous to kiss goodnight. Eventually, Scully reached out, grabbing him by the hip and hauling him to her mouth once more before releasing him far too soon. 

 

They stared at the floor, both blushing furiously. Neither could tell you how it happened, they were both caught up in the absolute bliss of this new development in their relationship, but before long Scully was standing behind a closed door, grinning to herself like a teenager with a first love, and Mulder was walking on air to his car. 


	16. Angel

Scully woke the next morning to see her daughter hunched over, digging through her closet. It took a few minutes to register what was going on- she’d been in a warm, sleepy haze ever since she and Mulder said goodbye last night. But before long, her vision got less blurry and she focused on what her daughter was doing. 

 

“Emily? Honey? Whatcha doing?” Scully asks, trying to find the strength to slide out from under her warm covers. Wordlessly, Emily turns around and drags a box from the base of Scully’s closet and plops down next to it, focusing back on the wad of what appeared to be cloth she had been examining.

  
Scully ripped the covers off like a band-aid and got out of bed to sit next to her daughter. Emily had always had a fascination with Scully’s closet, it being a treasure trove of strange knick-knacks and old memorabilia Scully can’t find a place for. 

 

“Whatcha got there?” Scully asked, rubbing one eye as she yawned. Emily held up what she had been messing with and Scully realized the box that Emily had discovered.

 

“What is it, Mommy?” Emily couldn’t take her eyes off the bundle of fabric.

 

Scully reached over and took the object from Emily, rolling it in her hands until she found the little wood ball with the smiley face on it. Holding it up for Emily to see the twenty-something year old ornament, she said, “It’s an angel, Emily. Can you see it?”

  
The little girl’s face scrunched up and she shook her head, causing Scully to laugh. 

 

“Your aunt… your aunt Melissa made it with me when we were little. We used to put it on top of the tree. I guess Grandma stuck it in this box of stuff she sent over.” Scully nodded at the box of various toys and books that Maggie’d bothered to save since her children had grown out of them. 

 

Emily reached forward and took the angel in her hand, turning it over carefully. “I still don’t see it.”

 

Scully chuckled. “That’s okay, I was really little when we made it.”

 

“We can still put it on top of the tree.” Emily smiled at Scully. “Can we call Daddy to help reach?”

  
“Emily, I’m sure we can do just fine on our own. We have chairs and step-ladders. And I could lift you.”

  
Emily’s face once again scrunched up the way it did when Scully served broccoli. Only, this time Scully relented. “Fine, we can call.”

  
Emily began to grin, and she hopped onto her feet and ran into the other room and returned with the phone.

 

“Mulder,” he answered, his voice betraying how happy he was to get the call. 

 

“Hey Mulder, we have kind of a situation here.” She glanced at her daughter who was bouncing on her knees with excitement, holding the tree-topper close. 

 

“What kind of situation?” his voice changed quickly to concern.

 

“It’s a long story, but we need your height.” 

 

“Not that I’m not glad you called, but don’t you have chairs…”

  
Scully rolled her eyes at her adorable daughter, unable to suppress a smile as she watched Emily dance through the apartment. “Emily says we’re too good for chairs.”

 

“I have to agree. Chairs are for suckers.”   
  


Scully rolled her eyes as Emily plopped down in her lap and played with the doll. “So, are you heading over?”

  
Mulder hesitated over the line. “I’m downstairs right now. Hope you guys like scones.” There was a paper bag rustling through the handset. 

 

“Well, come on up then.” Emily looked at Scully excitedly and ran to the living room to wait, bouncing on her two feet, by the door. 


	17. Carols

Christmas carols played on the radio as Mulder was chopping celery in the kitchen. He jumped when Emily tugged on his shirt. 

 

“You’re up from your nap.” 

 

She nodded and stared across the room at the stereo that was playing.

  
“Daddy?”   
  
“Hmmm?”   
  
“Why would people cook chess nuts? Can’t you just get them as a snack at the grocery store?” 

 

He stopped chopping for a moment and looked down at her, trying to figure out where the obscure question could have come from. And then Bing’s voice hit him and he laughed.

 

“Oh, you mean like ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire’?” She nodded. 

 

“I think it was something that they did as a treat a while ago. Whenever this song was written.”

 

“Can we try cooking them?”   
  
“We don’t have a fireplace,” he said quickly, images of fire hazards and angry Scullys dancing through his head. 

 

“The stove. Doesn’t that have fire?” 

 

“It does, but remember what we said about it being very dangerous and how it’s not a toy?” Mulder casually stepped between Emily and the stove, breaking her gaze so he knew she was paying attention to what he said. 

 

“I guess…” she sighed, so much like her mother. 

 

In the corner, the song changed.

 

“I’ll tell you what, Emily. If you finish your celery, we can go to the park and build a Frosty the Snowman.” 

 

Emily pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment. “Okay.”

 

“Great.” Mulder started loading celery sticks onto a plate and put a dab of peanut butter on the side. Behind him, Emily dragged a chair loudly across the floor. 

 

“Emily, what are you doing?”

 

“Nothing.” He didn’t turn around, but he just heard the chair being dragged back into place.

 

Mulder brought her snack over to the table as she was climbing into her seat. 

 

“Emily.”

 

She didn’t meet his eyes. “Yes?”

 

“Emily, I said we can’t use the stove to try out the open fire thing. That’s dangerous.”   
  
“Okay.” She still didn’t meet his eyes. 

 

“Emily.”    
  
“What?” She turned to him with the same intensity her mother often had. 

 

“Do you know why using the stove is dangerous?”   
  
She kept eye contact, but shook her head. 

 

“Well, it’s because it wasn’t made for much more than cooking noodles or soup, and since there’s fire, it’s dangerous since a lot of stuff can catch on fire. And if stuff starts catching on fire, we could get hurt, or other people can get hurt.”

 

She nodded in understanding, but looked horrified. “Then why did they sing it?”

 

Mulder chuckled. “They were just talking about cooking chestnuts and that sort of thing. And there’s a certain way they did that, and it wasn’t over the burner on the stove.”

 

Her shoulders shrugged in disappointment. “Okay.” 

 

He couldn’t help but smile. As much as she was like Scully, he couldn’t help but enjoy seeing when a Mulder-y part of her personality came out. 

 

“But, hey, Emily?”

 

She started picking at her celery. “Hmmm?”

 

“If we ever have a fireplace, how about I make sure that at Christmas we can roast chestnuts on an open fire?”

  
She smiled. “Okay.”

  
  


Scully came to pick her up later that evening, while Emily was watching cartoons on his worn leather couch. 

 

“She ate vegetables right? You didn’t just feed her chips and sweets because she’s adorable and you cave all the time?”

  
Mulder laughed. “Yes. She reluctantly ate a plate of celery. Ummm… but you should know…”

  
“Mulder. What did you do?”

 

“Okay, so that old song about chestnuts roasting on an open fire came on the radio.”

  
“And?”

  
“And she asked why they roasted chestnuts when you could just buy them at the store.”

  
“AND?”

  
“And I said that they probably didn’t have packages of snacks you could just buy when the song was written. And then she asked how you would roast chestnuts and I told her that it was really dangerous to go near the stove and since I don’t have a fireplace we probably can’t do all the holiday recipes. And I may have accidentally created an arsonist.”

 

“Mulder.”

 

“I just felt you should know to watch her closely near the stove at home. But we’ve been over it a million times about how dangerous stoves are and how she shouldn’t mess with them because people can get hurt.”

  
“Okay. It sounds like you handled it okay. I’ll just keep her away from the kitchen.”

 

“Okay. Just beware, she’s about as stubborn as you when it comes to these things.”

 

Scully smiled proudly, but shook her head. “I don’t know, Mulder. I think she gets it from you.”

  
Her fingers wrapped around his and she squeezed his hand, and then joined Emily on the couch to watch Frosty. 


	18. Snowboots

“Emily, sweetie. If you try these on, we’ll be done before you know it,” Scully pleaded with the girl. 

 

Emily looked up from where she was lying face down on the floor of the shoe store. “You said one more pair last time.” 

  
“Just one more. I know the last ones pinched your toes and we wouldn’t want you running around the playground with pinched toes.”   
  


Emily rolled her eyes and stuck her socked feet into the air. Scully crawled over to her and shoved a pair of snow boots on her feet as best she could with the angle. 

 

“Emily, you think you can walk around a little bit for me?” Scully placed her hand lightly on Emily’s back and tried to dial back her frustration. 

 

All she got in response was a mumble. “My legs don’t work.”

 

“Really? That’s a shame. I guess we don’t have to buy snow boots anymore.”

  
The girl jumped to her feet. “We can go?”

  
“Oh, your legs do work? What a miracle!” Scully said in mock surprise. 

 

Emily glared at Scully, and stomped up and down the aisle to appease her mother, jumping over the mountain of discarded shoes they’d tried. 

 

“Well? Do they pinch your toes?” 

 

Emily shrugged. 

 

“Honey, we’ll be out of the store in no time if you just cooperate," Scully reasoned for the millionth time that afternoon. 

 

Emily sighed. “They are good.”

 

“No pinching?”

  
“No pinchy.” 

 

“So, do you wanna get these?” Scully asked as Emily shed the boots. 

 

“Yes, but purple?” 

  
“Sure, Em, I’ll see if they have purple.” Scully rose to her feet, and tucked the tiny boots back into their box. The kid was growing faster than they made shoes. 

 

Scully kept one eye on Emily as she walked up to the register, to the saleswoman who was even more frustrated and exhausted with the amount of trying on shoes than the four year old was. “Find the perfect ones?”

  
Scully sighed, relieved. “Yeah, I think we did. Do you have them in purple by any chance?”

 

The saleswoman went briefly into the back and came out with a grim look on her face. “No, sorry. We’re out in that size. There’s some other brands you could try though.” 

  
Behind them, Emily let out a wail and collapsed on the floor out. 

  
“No, no. Thanks. I think we’ll just stick with the pink,” Scully said, quickly. 


	19. Holly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took forever, I swear I'll update more regularly going forward... thanks for bearing with me...

He arrived in the office thirty minutes early. At first, Mulder had intended to hang it in the doorway, but then began to look at his other options. He spent nearly half the time examining the space for the perfect spot to hang the clipping, and as his time ran low, he finally went back to his first choice. 

 

He was standing on a crate of old files, hanging the mistletoe, when he heard the clicking of her heels as she made her way down the hallway. 

 

Mulder deserted his project, praying it would stay up despite how sloppy his hanging job was. As the knob was turning on the door, he leapt behind their desk and faked casualness, despite his racing heart. 

 

For a moment, they didn’t speak. Scully just started at him curiously, while standing frozen in the doorway, perfectly placed below the sprig of mistletoe. 

 

“Mulder?”   
  
“Hmmm?” 

“You’re looking more relaxed than you normally do at this time of day.”

  
He tilted his head back and forth in mock thoughtfulness. “Do I?”

 

“Yeah, is something wr-”   
  
“STOP.” 

 

She paused, about to step forward from her place in the doorway. “What?”   
  
He jumped up, and approached her, stepping far closer than she normally allowed at work. “Mulder. You gonna tell me why you’re acting so weird?”

He gave her an ornery grin, and not-so-subtly glanced up, trying to direct her attention to his most recent office decoration.

  
“What could that be?” Scully pondered, grinning. “And why could it be there?”

 

“Seems like a sign from the universe,” he said, eyes never leaving hers. 

 

“And what could it want from us?” 

 

She’d barely finished her sentence before Mulder couldn’t take it any longer and planted a deep kiss on her. They both moaned, and it deepened for a moment before Mulder broke away for air.

 

“Well?” he asked, grinning down at her.

  
“Not bad,” she smiled back at him. “Though, to be honest, I am feeling a little woozy.”

 

“They should put out a warning about mistletoe purchases, I guess,” Mulder said. “Causes drowsiness and dizziness. Do not operate heavy machinery.”   
  
He would have continued rambling on about harmful side effects that mistletoe could cause, but he was stopped by a strange look by Scully. “What?”   
  
“Mulder…” she pointed at the plant hanging from the ceiling. “What do you think that is?”   
  
“Mistletoe? That’s the kissing thing, right?” Admittedly, holiday traditions had never been something he paid attention to until now. 

  
“Mulder,” she said delicately, although holding back a huge grin. “That’s not mistletoe, it’s holly.”

He looked up at it. “Seriously?”

  
She giggled. “Yeah. Absolutely sure.” 

 

“Oh.” He shifted on his feet, slightly disappointed he wouldn’t have an excuse to kiss her un-platonically throughout the rest of the day. Scully noticed this shift in mood, and started to speak.

  
“Although, Mulder. One could never be too certain. And as a scientist, it would be shameful for me to outright dismiss the potential that it is in fact mistletoe without proper testing procedures.”

 

He grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t want to tarnish your reputation.”

 

And that was all he could make out before she pulled him down for another kiss.


	20. Peppermint

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damn the chapter notes of this thing are a story of their own. sorry this took so long. it will be done today or tomorrow. thats final. this is not spilling over until Christmas 2019. I swear.

 

 

Their last day of the year at the Bureau was just a half day. Arriving at nine on the dot, they spent a couple hours organizing open files and closed files, and finishing up reports. By the time the clock struck noon, Mulder was already pulling Scully out the door, throwing on a jacket as they went. Normally, he had to pull her from the work, with her protesting that they had to finish something because she couldn’t do it at home, but this time was different. They had an hour before early pick up for Emily, and they were going to savor it. 

 

Mulder had been planning this for days, ever since that night she’d climbed on his lap and kissed him dizzy. This was their chance for a quick first date without raising suspicion with Maggie or the girl down the hall who occasionally babysits as to why they needed to have dinner together alone. Of course, they hadn’t exactly discussed it as a ‘date’, and for all he knew, she could think it was just lunch, but he was intent on making it as romantic as possible with the hour he had. 

 

By the time they were out of the building, Mulder was speed-walking, not wanting to let a second go to waste. After a moment, he realized that Scully was no longer at his side and he quickly turned around to see her slowly walking towards him to make a point, glancing down to make an obvious point about a pencil skirt and heels. He smiled awkwardly, and waited for her to catch up. 

 

“Sorry,” he mumbled when she reached him. 

 

She shook her head, chuckling. “It’s fine, just slow down, we have an hour and Emily’s preschool is just a couple blocks away. Plenty of time.”

 

She pulled a cold hand from her pocket to link it with his, and squeezed. He stared down at her, and got lost for a moment in her eyes, before pulling away and continuing forward, suddenly feeling far more nervous than he’d expected. It hadn’t hit him until just then that, _this was Scully._

 

His mind was racing in every possible direction when Scully stopped, and pulled on his arm. “What-“

 

She jutted her chin at the restaurant that they’d talked about. “Isn’t this it?”

 

“Oh, yeah.” He was almost positive he was shaking. _What the hell? This hadn’t happened before._

 

Scully stopped his panic by dropping his his hand to slide her arms around his neck and kiss him solidly on the mouth. They broke away after a second, stepping to the side to let another couple get to the door, and Scully took this moment to ask him, “Mulder, are you okay?”

 

He shrugged, nervously looking at his feet. “I guess I’m just nervous. I was kind of hoping this was a date, but I didn’t really think about what that would mean until now.” 

 

Scully pulled him tightly into a hug, ignoring the throng of people that passed them with strange looks. “I’m nervous too,” she whispered, into his ear. “But I really want this, and I think you do, too-“ he interrupted her with an forceful ‘yes’. “-and of course this is going to feel a little weird, with our history and our circumstances. And we’re going to have to be careful, for Emily’s sake, but I think we can handle it. I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t so sure.” 

 

He smiled into her shoulder, remembering that _this was Scully._ She was sure about everything. If she believed in them, he should too. 

 

“Let’s just take it slow,” she continued. “And we can figure it out as we go along. If anything comes up, we’ll deal with it.”

 

He nodded, holding her tighter for a second, before pulling back enough to kiss her, soft and chaste at first before, deepening it. When they pulled away, snow had begun to fall around them and Scully’s nose had turned pink from the cold. He leaned down again and kissed the tip of it, causing her to giggle, and then the headed into the restaurant. 

 

 

 

An hour later, they were waiting by the entrance of Emily’s school, his arm tightly around her, under the guise of warmth. She glanced up at him smiling, and he leaned down to kiss her quickly hoping none of the other parents noticed. They broke apart when they heard the first few kids start running out into the yard screaming. They searched the sea of kids for their daughter, watching everyone around them hugging and laughing. 

 

Somewhere to their left, they heard a familiar scream and turned to see Emily running towards them, backpack thumping on her back as she ran, holding a bundle of candy canes in one of her hands.

 

She didn’t slow down when she reached them, and Mulder pulled his arm from around Scully to catch her as soon as he realized she would jump at them. He spun Emily around as she laughed, and then set her down to hug Scully as tightly as she could. 

 

“Whatcha got there, Em?” he asked, pointing at the candy canes. 

 

“We played a bunch of games today,” she said, out of breath, either from running or excitement. “And I won three! One for all of us!”

 

She held out one to him, which he took graciously, and tucked another into the inside pocket of Scully’s coat.

 

“Thank you, Emily,” she said, bouncing her on her hip for effect. 

 

Emily leaned her head on Scully’s shoulder, her energy dramatically decreasing all of a sudden, and Scully dropped a kiss to her forehead. “That excitement tire you out, honey?”

 

The baby nodded.

 

“Well, lets get you home and you can take your nap.” She smiled at Mulder, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they walked back to her car. 


	21. Guests

The flurries the day before had turned into a full-blown snowstorm, as Scully found out from Emily at four in the morning. She woke her up, bouncing on the bed, giggling, and begging to use the phone and call Mulder. Scully groaned and rolled over, burying her face in the pillow, hoping she was just having a very life-like dream. But Emily wouldn’t take no for an answer, and wiggled under the covers next to her mom, and put her cold hands on her face, trying to pry her eyes open. 

 

“Okay, okay, I’m awake,” Scully said, sitting up, groaning. “But we can’t call Mulder, it’s too early, sweetie.”

 

“Why-yy?” Emily begged.

 

“Because its still dark outside. We can call him when it’s light outside.” 

 

“But what if he can’t get over because of the snow?” Emily asked, panicked.

 

Scully pulled her into a hug, hoping to rock her back to sleep, even just briefly. She thought about all the times, in all the various states Mulder had found his way to her apartment, and figured the snow would be no different. “He’ll make it over here, honey. Don’t worry.” 

 

“Okay,” Emily yawned, giving away how tired she really was. 

 

Within minutes, Emily was back asleep, curled against Scully, sucking her thumb. Scully carefully slid her arm under Emily’s bent knees, trying to stealthily slide her off her lap without waking her up. 

 

After Emily’s weight was off her lap, she slid back down the bed to try to fall asleep as well. She was on the cusp of sleep, when she heard on the front door open and close. Suddenly far from sleep, and heart racing, Scully glanced at her closet, where her weapon was stored on the hop shelf in a lockbox. She heard floorboards creak, and knew there wasn’t time, so she pulled the wiffleball bat Mulder had gotten her for Christmas in the hopes of starting their future Yankee early, and crept out into the hall, shutting the door firmly behind her. 

 

She saw a shadow move against the far wall of the living room, and she tiptoed closer, holding the bat closer over her shoulder, ready to swing as soon as she saw the intruder. 

 

Heart pumping in her chest, she heard boards groan and footsteps grow closer to her, so she leapt from behind the corner, and swung at the tall, dark silhouette. 

 

“Scully,” he choked, grabbing the bat quickly before it could hit him. ‘It’s just me-“ He reached over and turned on a light. It was just Mulder, and she let out a deep sigh as she took the bat back and he shook his reddened hand. “It was snowing pretty hard, and I didn’t want to get trapped-“ 

 

She nodded. “Yeah.” 

 

“Glad the bat came in handy.” 

 

“Yeah, really.” 

 

“Sorry to come unannounced. I just didn’t want to wake you up, and so I thought I’d just sneak in…”

 

She nodded again. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Emily was actually thinking the same thing.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, she came into my room about half an hour ago worried you wouldn’t be able to make it over here.”

 

He smiled, unable to control his glee at that fact. 

 

They stood in silence a beat, neither sure of what to say. The clock on the stove read four forty five am. Far too early for anyone to be up, let alone them or their daughter. 

 

“Listen, Mulder, I need an hour more of sleep or so, in order to have energy for what I’m sure will be a long day in the cold.”

 

He nodded, understanding. “Is it okay if I hang out on the couch?” 

 

She yawned. “Fine, but if Emily wakes up and finds you here, just keep the noise to a minimum-“ she was interrupted by the creak of a door behind them. A tiny face peaked out of the dark, and lit up when she saw who was there. 

 

“Dadddddyyy!” she squealed running towards them. “Its so snowy outside- did you see it?” She leapt into his arms. 

 

“Yeah, I did, Em. It was up to my ankles when I came over here.”

 

“Wow,” her little jaw dropped, sleep a distant memory for her. 

 

“Mulder,” Scully yawned, gesturing towards her bedroom. 

 

He nodded in understanding. “We’ll keep the volume down, sweet dreams.” 

 

Without thinking, he leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead, and she laughed quietly and rolled her eyes. 

 

Before she closed her bedroom door, she peaked out at the scene in the living room, just like her daughter had just a few minutes before. Mulder rifling through her movie collection, asking Emily if she’d ever seen Miracle on 34th Street. Emily, to her credit, was trying to remain calm, bouncing only slightly on the couch as she listened to her dad go on about the plot of the movie. Scully chuckled to herself, knowing Emily wouldn’t make it the entire way through a movie with no cartoons or dancing snowmen, but she figured Mulder would be able to buy her an hour or so of sleep, and she was grateful for that. 


	22. Family

 

“Mulder, is there any way you could pick up sparkling cider on your way over?” Scully begged, only half able to concentrate while Emily twirled and pulled on her free arm. “I know I was supposed to pick you up and everything, but we’re running late, and Bill’s always been a jerk about tardiness-"

 

“Of course, no problem. Do you need me to get anything else?” She could hear the jingle of his keys and doors closing on the other end of the line. 

 

“No, no, it’s fine. I promised to bring the drinks, and I totally forgot that Tara’s pregnant again, so wine and cranberry juice wouldn’t really work. Thank you so much, I can’t even tell you.” 

 

“Juice?” Emily’s ears perked up at the word, and Mulder chuckled. 

 

“I’m on it,” he promised. “I’ll just see you guys over there.”

 

“Okay,” Scully said, before becoming momentarily distracted. “No-no Emily don’t take off your jacket, we’re about to leave. Sorry, Mulder, I should probably get her out-“

 

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” he said. “I’ll see you over there. And I’ll try to be on my best behavior.”

 

“I’ll do my best to steer Bill away from you.” 

 

“Thank you.”

 

“We’ll see you over there- yes, Emily, we’re about to leave- no, no, no don’t open the door yet. Gotta go, Mulder.” And the line went dead before he could return the sentiment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door swung open before Emily could notice the enticing doorbell to ring a thousand different times, and revealed Tara, as smiley and happy as ever, with a tiny toddler perched on her hip. 

 

“Dana! Emily! Hi! Come in, come in!” she stepped aside, letting Scully lead Emily into the house, and giving both a quick side-hug hello. 

 

“How are you two?” Tara asked, adjusting her grip on Matthew. 

 

“We’re doing great,” Scully said, glancing down at a frustrated Emily, with her arms crossed over her chest. She could see that her lips were pursed, continuing the silent treatment she’d begun in the car. “Just a little disappointed about today’s juice allotment, huh?” she asked Emily, running her fingers through her daughter’s combed hair, trying to get her attention. 

 

Emily just shrugged angrily as Tara chuckled. “That’s alright. You know, Emily, your Uncle Bill is helping Gramma hang some lights and evergreen up in the dining room. I’m sure if you helped them, you could get a cookie or two as a treat.”

 

Emily’s eyes lit up. While initially hesitant of dinner with her aunt and uncle, two people she could barely remember, she was immediately one over at the promise of cookies, and quickly pulled off her shoes before dashing through the house. 

 

“Dana, can I help you with the bag?” Tara asked, reaching for the drink bag. 

 

“Oh, no, Tara, that’s alright, you’ve got your hands full,” Scully nodded at her squirming nephew. “I’ll take care of this, and Mulder will be along in a few minutes with the cider for you.” 

 

“Oh,” Tara stopped short, clearly surprised. “Your partner’s coming?”

 

Scully stared at her. “Yeah. I told Mom and Bill about this a few days ago.” 

 

“Oh- okay. We just weren’t sure if it was definite or just a possibility.”

 

“What do you mean?” Scully put her hand on her hip. “I thought I was pretty clear.”

 

“Yeah, we just didn’t know if he was invited with you guys, or if it was just if he happened to stop by-“

 

“He was always coming with us.” Scully glanced through to the kitchen, where her mother was feeding Emily cookies, and Bill was standing very far apart from them, focused solely on doing a good job with the lights. 

 

“It’s just that Bill thought since you two just work together and he probably had something better to do, with work or something, that he might not have time to stop by. You know how he’s been before. Always working, or dragging you away on some case. Bill was just concerned, and he didn’t want food wasted or something.” Tara shrugged, like it was nothing like a simple misunderstanding. 

 

Scully opened her mouth, and then closed it, trying to not start a scene in the middle of the house. “Mulder is Emily’s dad. And my friend, and partner. Not just a work friend with no social etiquette. He was never coming as ‘just’ anything, he was coming as part of my family. In fact we were supposed to come together, but he willingly ran an errand for me and had to come late. Just let Bill know that from now on, he’s invited to anything the rest of his family is.” Perhaps the delivery of the message was a little harsh, especially when the person she really wanted to strangle was her older brother, but Scully was standing by it. 

 

Tara remained silent, before grabbing the drinks bag out of Scully’s hand, before making her way into the kitchen, leaving Scully standing there in the middle of the living room, trying to control her breathing. She was nearly calm when the doorbell rang, and she flew towards the door, wanting to be the first person to greet Mulder. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was standing there, on the doorstep, shifting from foot to foot, clearly nervous, holding two different bottles of sparkling something. 

 

 

“Hi,” he said. “They were out of the normal sparkling cider, so I got both the generic sparkling cider, and also sparkling pomegranate juice. There’s also a bottle of sparkling kiwi lime something- punch, maybe- in the car, but it was a last resort-“ his spiel was interrupted by Scully stepping out onto the cold stoop in her socks, letting the door slam shut behind her and pulling him in as tight as she could for a hug. “Whoa, hey. Thanks.” She could feel him get a better grip on the bottles, before hugging her as tight as he could back. 

 

“Thanks,” she said, pulling away.

 

“Everything okay?” he asked. 

 

“Yeah. Just underestimated how hard this night was going to be.” 

 

“Wow. Already? You guys beat me by like five minutes? If it hadn’t been for that traffic light…” 

 

Scully nodded, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders to pull him into another hug. “I love you,” she mumbled into his jacket. 

 

“What?” he pulled back, suddenly. 

 

“Sorry- I just-“

 

“No, no, no, go ahead. What?”

 

“I… uh..” Scully stared at her feet, realizing for the first time she was not wearing shoes. “I love you.” 

 

She glanced up at him, to see him smiling far wider than she ever would have expected for this evening. “I know we haven’t gotten around to talking fully about this-“ she gestured between them. “I just… wanted you to know.” 

 

He leaned down and set the bottles on the ground, before taking her jaw in his hands and kissing her, letting his tongue slide between her lips and causing her to moan. It grew more heated for a second, before he broke the kiss, and pulled her tight into another embrace. 

 

“I love you too, Scully,” he whispered into her ear. “So much, I’ll even pretend not to hear what Bill has to say about our work.” 

 

She chuckled into his jacket, and nuzzled his neck with her nose. “You’re really sweet. And a heads up, it’s also Tara this year too.”

 

“She was so nice, though.”

 

“I think Bill got to her.” 

 

Mulder squeezed her tight, and pulled back enough to drop a quick kiss on her mouth and cheek. “Two hours.”

 

“I should be telling you that.” 

 

“We’re partners, right?” 

 

She rolled her eyes, and kissed him quickly. 

 

“Hey, where’s Emily?” 

 

“In the kitchen, likely being stuffed with Christmas cookies.”

 

“Fun bedtime.”

 

Scully laughed. “You may be needed for reinforcements.” 

 

He smiled, thinking immediately of his packed bag, waiting in the car, ready at a moment’s notice. “I’m there.” 

 

“Good.”

 

They shared a smile, both feeling better about crossing into the house with something to look forward to on the other side of it. 


	23. Santa Claus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter kind of sucks- may come back and edit once the entire thing is done

They’d gotten home late the night before, having been roped into dessert and coffee by Maggie, and Emily was up far later than normal as a result of that. Scully asked, in a far less flirtatious manner than she would have done if the hour was earlier, for him to stay the night. She’d rolled her eyes adorably when she came out of the bathroom and found him rifling through her storage closet for extra sheets and blankets for the couch, and reached out and pulled him back into her room. 

 

He’d spent the night at her apartment more times than he could count, especially in the past year, even some in her bed. But never had he been able to kiss her goodnight, and fall asleep curled around her like it was normal. His arm was linked under hers, right above her ribcage, and he could feel her breathing evening out. He smiled into her shoulder, feeling completely at peace, and fell asleep warmer than ever. 

 

 

Which did not last long. 

 

 

Two tiny, baby feet swinging up in front of his face woke him up abruptly. He opened his eyes to see Emily, trying ever so stealthily, to climb up onto the bed. 

 

“Emily?” he whispered, pulling his arm away from Scully to grab her before she toppled off the side of the bed in surprise. 

 

“Sorry, Daddy,” she said, remembering only by the last syllable to whisper. “I had a bad dream.” 

 

He sat up, and pulled her onto his lap, where she immediately laid her head on his chest. “What happened in it?” He reached over and turned on the dim bedside lamp, hoping the light wouldn’t wake Scully up. 

 

She shrugged, glancing down at her mom, still fast asleep somehow. “I wanna talk to Mommy.”

 

“Sweetie, Mommy’s asleep. Can you talk to me so we don’t have to wake her up?” 

 

Emily kicked out her leg, not quite reaching Scully. “Mommy knows my dreams.” 

 

Mulder pursed his lips, not really knowing what to do. Emily bounced her feet on the bed, and he could tell it was a half-hearted attempt to wake her mom up. Honestly, he kind of hoped it worked, but knew that Scully had been up late most nights and deserved one off. 

 

He hugged his daughter tighter, seeing that she’d begun to suck her thumb, an action she only did when she was particularly nervous. 

 

“Emily?” 

 

She didn’t answer, but he could see her eyes glance up quickly. 

 

“You know, honey, I have bad dreams too. And sometimes, when I just go back to sleep, my new dream isn’t anything like the other ones, and it’s even better.”

 

Emily remained silent, but pulled her thumb out of her mouth to look up at him and give him a patented Scully look. _Yeah, he didn’t think that was gonna work either._

 

“Do you wanna just try and sleep in here tonight?”

 

She shrugged.

 

“Honey, you need to sleep so you’re nice and rested for tomorrow.”

 

“Christmas Eve?”

 

“Yeah. I mean, Santa might just skip this apartment tomorrow if you’re not asleep, so do you wanna talk about what’s bothering you, or do you wanna try and go to sleep and practice for tomorrow?”

 

She pursed her lips and was silent for a moment.

 

“Will he really skip this apartment?”

 

“Maybe.”

 

She took a deep, heavy breath, and began. “I had a dream about my old mommy and daddy, and we were here, and then they were gone an’ I was just here alone, and so I woke up and came to see if you and Mommy were still here.”

 

She looked up at him with her big, Scully-blue eyes, and he could see her bottom lip beginning to wobble. His heart just broke, and he pulled her into a tight hug, running one hand through her hair the way Scully did to calm her down. 

 

“Sweetie, you don’t ever have to worry. Mommy and I will always be here.”

 

“You’ll always be here?”

 

“Yeah, of course, I said-“ and then it hit him what she was asking. “I’ll be here as much as I possibly can. So much so, you won’t notice when I’m not.”

 

She gave him a small smile, and then climbed off his lap, to settle right between him and Scully. 

 

“I think I wanna go to sleep now.”

 

He smiled, and shut off the light as she cuddled closer to her mom’s sleeping form.

 

“Daddy?” she whispered.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Is Santa gonna come here now?” 

 

“Yeah. Tomorrow night, he’ll be right down the chimney.”

 

She giggled. “Okay.” 


End file.
